


High School Reunion, class of '85

by Deputychairman



Category: Cobra Kai (Web Series)
Genre: 'he's given me like 3 cars', 'oh yeah we're running a dojo together', 3 times or something, M/M, and how obsessed johnny was with this pretty new kid, deep in denial, i mean what would YOU make of that??, imagine if you went to school with these lifelong karate rivals, it's high school reunion time!, no beta we die like john kreese, the penny's gonna drop eventually watch it start to fall!, the story of your senior year was them fighting all the time, then they turn up 35 years later like, they're still completely oblivious
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-07
Updated: 2021-03-07
Packaged: 2021-03-13 22:49:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,956
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29908275
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Deputychairman/pseuds/Deputychairman
Summary: “So listen, Johnny, can I just say - I heard you’re here with Daniel LaRusso?” He says the name like it’s Michael Jackson or – or Santa Claus, just the most impossible person that Johnny could ever have come with.Johnny doesn’t smile. “Yeah. I’m running a karate dojo with him.”
Relationships: Daniel LaRusso/Johnny Lawrence
Comments: 70
Kudos: 203





	High School Reunion, class of '85

**Author's Note:**

> I outlined this on tumblr and talked myself into writing it! (credit also to my girl cicaklah for MVP validation). Anyway so this is the concept note we're working with here, (I can't get enough of normal people walking into the lifelong karate rivalry slash next gen teenage karate war ft. bad grandpa sensei and being like, oh, wild, the only explanation here is if they're sleeping together.):
> 
> nomercyonlytears:  
> gen x was basically the last generation to give a shit about high school reunions, which makes me wonder if daniel and johnny ever went to theirs
> 
> deputychairman:  
> No bc it wouldn’t have been funny if they went before but NOW it would be Peak Comedy, especially for Johnny “uh yeah last time you saw me I was obsessed with physically bullying him in an ultra macho hazing ritual and now we’re running a karate dojo together and he’s given me 2 cars. Why are you laughing.”
> 
> #everyone else in their year group:#‘ohhhh everything makes so much SENSE now!’#even funnier if they’re not fucking but everyone assumes they are#EVERYONE#they keep looking at each other like ‘what the fuck is wrong with these people???’#‘can’t a highschool bully team up with the victim he’s been obsessed with for 35 years without people leaping to conclusions??’#TOTALLY mystified#and pissed off enough that they leave together bc the other guy is the only one who understands how it really is#they get blackout drunk somewhere else as they complain about all those assholes#it’s a bonding experience they silently resolve not to think any deeper about#they’ve been repressing this shit for 35 years you think one (1) high school reunion is gonna change that? please

If he’d known Amanda wasn’t going to come, Daniel would never have suggested to Johnny that they go in the first place.

He’d only been at West Valley for a year, and it had been one of the most miserable years of his life. Sure, there had been Ali and winning the Tournament, but it’s not like he has great memories of West Valley High Class of ’85 or anything. Why does he even want to go to the reunion? Is he really so insecure he still wants to prove himself to a bunch of assholes, 35 years later?

That’s what Amanda wants to know too.

“Why would you do that to yourself?” she asks, incredulous, as she chops vegetables. “Don’t get me wrong, meeting your and Johnny’s ex was amazing, but if she’s not going then there’s really nothing in it for me except small talk and bad wine.”

“And being the most beautiful woman in the room?” Daniel wheedles, pouring her a glass of the 2014 Malbec. He’s a salesman, he’s still optimistic he can talk her round.

“Babe, I don’t need to spend Saturday night with a high school class 9 years older than me just to feel good about myself. I know I’m a knockout.”

He concedes that point: obviously, she is a knockout, Daniel’s not arguing there. His wife is basically always the most beautiful woman in the room.

“Think of it like networking!” he tries. “A lot of potential customers there…”

“Again, just because I’m good at networking doesn’t mean I want to spend Saturday night doing it with your high school class. Maybe I don’t want their business anyway - you always told me they did nothing to help when you were being bullied there.”

“And that’s exactly why I want to turn up with my beautiful wife and show them how good I’ve made it, you know?” That’s not such a weird thing to want, is it? One evening, showing off to your old classmates?

“We have billboards all over town, Daniel, they already know how good you’ve made it!”

“Yeah, but if I turn up alone they might think I’m some sad, lonely guy, selling cars to fill the void in his life…”

“But you won’t turn up alone, you said Johnny was going too.”

“I _know_ you know that turning up with Johnny Lawrence on my arm is _not_ the same as if you came.”

Amanda tips her vegetables into the salad bowl and smiles at that.

“I do, but it’s still nice to hear it,” she leans across the kitchen counter to kiss him and Daniel meets her halfway.

“Gross,” says Anthony, walking past them without even looking up from his Nintendo. Kid must have incredible peripheral vision.

“C’mere and I’ll kiss you too,” his father threatens as he disappears into the living room.

“I’m gonna have _so_ much fun the first time he brings a girl home,” Amanda sighs, shaking her head. “Anyway, this reunion: I’m really not coming with you. I still come out in a cold sweat thinking about high school, put me in a room like that and my 14 year old nerd with braces will come out again and I don’t want you to meet her. Or worse: it could be my 16 year old overcompensating slut. Imagine if _she_ came out.”

“I’d have loved her. Both of her,” says Daniel, loyally. He would have, too. He was never too proud to talk to the nerdy kids, or the girls with a bad reputation, and despite what Amanda says when her teenage photos come out, she was cute back then. A foot taller than he was at that age, but definitely cute.

“You know, I think you’ll actually be better off going with Johnny? Sounds like he was the top dog in your class, plus he was the one who made you so miserable. So now you show up looking great,” she punctuates this by squeezing his ass. “And _doing_ so great that even your high school karate nemesis is your friend now? Babe, that’s the power move of a lifetime!”

“Johnny’s not my friend,” he mutters instinctively.

It does sound great when Amanda says it, but he still feels a little bit like he’s walking into a trap. With Johnny Lawrence right there to smell blood in the water, because he can hardly say, _I’m out, changed my mind, my wife won’t come and no way am I walking into the lion’s den without her to stick up for me_.

Ha ha, Daniel in the lion’s den, he’s heard that one before. Maybe because he keeps walking into lion’s dens.

* * *

It’s weird, waiting in line with LaRusso to collect name badges. Johnny doesn’t know why he said yes to this.

Ok, so he knows _how_ he said yes. He said yes when LaRusso said, “Guess you’re not going to the class of ’85 reunion, right?” as he locked up the dojo after their sixth joint class hadn’t yet come to blows.

Johnny didn’t know there was a reunion.

“Why wouldn’t I be going?” he says, because why defend when you can attack.

LaRusso looks at him over his shoulder and shrugs.

“Just thought it wouldn’t be your kinda thing, bunch of people showing off about how good they made it and making high school sound like the good old days.”

“High school was alright,” Johnny says.

“For you, maybe,” he scoffs.

“Oh, sorry LaRusso, did you get your ass kicked at high school?”

“Yeah, some asshole didn’t know when to quit. But I’ve done pretty ok for myself since.”

They’re standing by their cars, ready to call it a night, and there’s a moment where Johnny could just put the keys back in his pocket and start something, say, _what, you trying to say I haven’t?_ Step forward, be intimidating – it’s tempting. Just a mention of high school and the old instincts are right back there just under the skin.

But LaRusso reads him just right. He shakes his head, grins and waves off the antagonism like he can see it.

“You’ve done ok too – you’re working with me, after all,” he says, pointing a thumb at himself with that cocky Jersey smirk like, _look at me, God’s gift to the San Fernando Valley!_

And with that mocking vote of confidence in the last 35 years of his life, Johnny’d said, “Yeah, I was gonna go. When is it again?”

“Would’ve been better if you’d brought your hot wife,” Johnny complains now, even though LaRusso had showed up in an Avanti from the lot and had let him drive. Couldn’t let the guy think Johnny’d go easy just because he’d got the keys. He had to know there was no payoff at all here.

“At least I’ve _got_ a hot wife,” LaRusso retorts.

Unfortunately Johnny laughs before he can stop himself.

“Yeah, but if she’s not here for people to see, she might as well not exist.”

“Sure, Johnny, you tell yourself that when you’re going to bed alone tonight, thinking of me going to bed with a beautiful woman who loves me.”

Which is annoying, because there’s no snappy way to challenge both the assumption that he’d be going to bed alone (surely one of the girls from their class would be hot and up for it, even with LaRusso there cramping his style) and the idea that he thought about LaRusso and his wife in bed. Ugh. Gross. (LaRusso gave off this smug vibe of someone having a lot of sex. Johnny didn’t know how he knew that’s what it was, he just did. Just like he knew she was definitely on top.)

LaRusso looks better than usual today, dark jeans and a blazer that Johnny wouldn’t have worn himself but he can see that it works on LaRusso. Some Italian thing. The two of them both look a lot better than some of the sad fucks in here. Even the former athletes, half of them have let themselves turn into couch potatoes.

When they reach the front of the line, he comes face to face with Jennifer Aldridge on the reunion organising committee. She’s there helping hand out badges: thinner and blonder than when she was briefly his rebound girlfriend, wearing a dress that shows she’s in great shape but doesn’t look like she’s _trying_ to show she’s in great shape. Maybe she’s not hotter now, exactly – she looks great, but mostly she looks more relaxed. And delighted to see him, so it’s easy to be generous in return.

“Johnny! Lawrence! Oh my god!” she embraces him, a quick hard squeeze that presses her breasts to his chest, and then a show of holding him at arm’s length so she can look him up and down. She gives his biceps a quick hard squeeze too and bites her lip. He feels kinda like a piece of meat, it’s great.

He shoots a glance at LaRusso, just to rub it in. LaRusso doesn’t even say anything, just rolls his eyes like Johnny expected him to but it’s enough to catch Jennifer’s attention. 

“Daniel?”

“That’s me,” he jokes, pointing to his name badge.

“Oh my god, do I need to call a referee? Or security?” she singsongs, still holding Johnny’s arm with one hand and wagging an admonishing finger at LaRusso. “You two, standing within 50 feet of each other?”

“Don’t worry, we’re adults now, Jennifer. No more fighting,” LaRusso lies, looking right at Johnny and daring him to disagree. “Right, Johnny?” 

“He’s just saying that because he knows I could still kick his ass,” Johnny says. “But don’t worry, I won’t.”

“Ha ha,” LaRusso deadpans. “In your dreams, maybe.”

Jennifer’s looking between the two of them, a slight frown on her face.

“Wait, are you two here together?”

They’re standing right next to each other, obviously they’re here together.

“Yeah.”

“Like, you came together?” she insists.

“Uh, yeah?”

“Oh my god, seriously?”

Seriously what? He doesn’t mean to glance at LaRusso again, but at least he looks like he doesn’t get what’s the big deal here either. He’s got his annoying _if I just remain calm it’ll all make sense_ face on.

“Yeah. We run a karate dojo together,” Johnny explains. Does she even remember it was a karate thing, when they used to fight? It wasn’t like they were just brawling around school.

Jennifer’s mouth opens very slightly, and closes again without saying anything. Her eyes are very wide, one hand is pressed to her heart. She looks like she’s just found Jesus.

“That is – _wow_. Everything makes so much more _sense_ now! Oh my god. Johnny, you were always talking about him in senior year, like you always knew where he was, what he was doing, what he was gonna be doing - you were literally _obsessed_ with him!” 

Johnny doesn’t entirely like how that sounds. “Yeah, obsessed with kicking his ass.”

“Sure, sure,” she says, smiling, nodding her head like she’s in on a joke. Johnny is definitely not in on the joke. He has no idea why she’s acting like this is such a big deal.

“No, he really was obsessed with kicking my ass,” LaRusso insists. He isn’t in on the joke either, apparently. His smile is looking kinda forced, when really he should be pleased someone thought Johnny was _obsessed_ with him. As if.

Jennifer just laughs knowingly. “Oh, I just bet he was!”

“Jennifer?” someone interrupts from behind the table of badges, “Can I just grab you for one minute over here?”

Right, yeah: they’re holding up the line.

“Sure, sure, Pam, be right with you – listen, Johnny, Daniel, it is _so_ great to see you both. Together. So great. I will come find you later and you have got to tell me all the details, ok?”

“Sure, Jennifer,” Johnny agrees. He’s already got LaRusso’s elbow, anticipating having to drag him away from whatever weirdness he can sense going on there. Obsessed with him, ha. Funny.

But he just gives her an insincere, “Yeah, great to see you, Jennifer,” and lets Johnny steer them away from the crazy and into the main hall.

“What was that all about?” he asks, pulling his arm free but not like he was mad about it.

“No idea, man. I’m getting a drink,” says Johnny, and leaves LaRusso standing there alone in the middle of the room without asking if he wants anything. Feels like the wrong time to offer to buy the guy a drink.

He has a shot at the bar and grabs himself two beers before he heads back to find LaRusso. Jennifer being weird has put him on guard: gotta keep an eye on the guy.

Of course there’s a group of people around him already, mostly women lapping up the big brown eyes and that salesman charm of his. Half the stuff that comes out of his mouth probably isn’t even fake, which is even sadder than if he was just lying all the time.

Johnny shoves one of his beers at him so he can shake hands with the men. Daniel takes it, raises his eyebrows at what he clearly recognises is Johnny’s spare beer and not a drink bought for him, and doesn’t even pause to say thank you.

“…my wife couldn’t make it tonight, I’m actually here with Johnny Lawrence – you guys definitely remember Johnny, right?”

There’s a small pause, and then several people say, “Oh!” “I see, ok!” and “Oh!”

A smiling blonde (Frances from biology class? Why have all the women gone blonde?) looks from LaRusso to Johnny to LaRusso again. “Well that’s great!” she announces firmly. The others nod in agreement.

“So, wow, have you two been in touch ever since high school?”

He looks at LaRusso who shrugs back at him like, _knock yourself out, tiger. You did such a good job explaining this to Jennifer._

“No. My car got towed to his lot last year. Then – we got back into karate, my student won the All Valley, and now we’re running a dojo together.” He has a feeling something doesn’t sound right there, that he’s missing some relevant details that make these facts hang together better.

There’s a small pause.

“Sorry, did you say you’re running a _dojo?_ Together?” echoes Frances from biology class.

“Yeah,” says LaRusso. Then, transparently changing the subject, he asks a little bit too enthusiastically, “And what about you? What are you doing these days, Frances?”

* * *

It’s not actually as weird as he was expecting, seeing these people again. Maybe some of the sting has gone out of it with all the times he’s been to West Valley itself as Sam’s dad. Helped him put all that firmly in the past: he’s an adult now, a father. He’s in no danger at the school itself, and he’s in no danger here. 35 years is a long time.

If things had been different, it might have been weird to run into Johnny here for the first time, surrounded by everyone who’d always been on his side and looking good like he does tonight, all blue eyes and broad shoulders. Instead of how it really happened, Daniel’s upper hand on the salesfloor of a dealership with his own name on it so glaringly obvious he’d had to even the odds by being too friendly, all eager to be liked. 

But this is ok. He likes talking to people, even people he barely remembers. It’s like Amanda said: a lot of them _have_ seen the billboards, and they remember him winning the tournament. They’re friendly, pleased to see him.

Some guy not wearing his name badge, but who Johnny obviously knows, is the first person to ask him to do the crane kick, the two of them standing together just too tempting to resist.

“C’mon man. C’mon. We got two two-time All Valley champs here, the ’84 finalists, you gotta show us the winning move!” he insists. “Pride of West Valley, man!”

Maybe Daniel will pretend to do the crane kick to sell cars and make Amanda happy (a little too happy, but she’d earned that), but he isn’t going to make a fool of himself doing it here. Not that he’s not tempted: the hairs on the back of his neck are standing up with the force of Johnny’s mounting annoyance, and on another day it might have been fun to play along, push his buttons and see what happens – wow, wouldn’t _that_ be something, re-enacting his victory in front of possibly the last demographic left in the Valley who might still cheerlead for Johnny? (Literally. He’s spotted a couple of Ali’s girlfriends on the squad watching Johnny appraisingly.)

Instead he says, “Ha ha, I only do that if you buy a car from me first.”

That makes Johnny smirk, because fine, yeah, it came out sounding a bit like he puts out to sell cars.

“He can’t get his leg up that high any more,” Johnny says.

“You think? Buy a car and find out.”

Johnny’s mouth twitches like he’s not letting himself laugh, which is better than the powder keg from a minute ago. Not that Daniel cares.

“Buy a car? I got the keys right here,” he says, pulling out the keys to the Avanti that Daniel hadn’t told Amanda or Anoush he was using tonight and really hopes he can get back to the lot in one piece before Monday. Johnny tosses the keys unnecessarily high, and then snatches them out of the air right in front of Daniel’s face.

Daniel doesn’t even flinch, just shakes his head and spreads his hands in mock sorrow. “Yeah, it’s the financial commitment that unlocks the crane kick. Sorry, man.”

“You think my credit’s no good?”

“Johnny, if I thought about your credit score, I’d never sleep at night.”

“C´mon, just one freebie for your high school reunion!” says No Name badge guy.

Who the hell is this jerk? Daniel’s good at ignoring a soft no on the salesfloor, but that doesn’t mean he likes it when someone does it to him.

“No, seriously,” Daniel tells him. “Johnny and I run a dojo together these days. I’m not gonna kick him in the face for no reason.”

“Yeah, but you’d do it to prove you can still get your leg that high,” Johnny says.

“Wait, you run a dojo together?” interrupts No Name. “Weren’t you like, mortal enemies?”

“Who says we aren’t still mortal enemies?” Johnny begins, but before he can really start escalating they are joined by two guys Daniel doesn’t recognise. Well, he knew Johnny had more friends at West Valley than he did, no surprises there.

These two he greets much more enthusiastically: hugs and _good to see you, man_ , while pounding each other on the back.

The bald one turns to Daniel, holds out his hand.

“Bobby Brown,” he says.

“He knows who you are,” Johnny says, before Daniel can introduce himself in turn, and all of a sudden he _does_ , it all comes back and he knows exactly who these guys are. These are Johnny’s friends, his gang of Cobra Kais, and respectable-looking Bobby Brown who’s wearing a shirt and blazer and still shaking his hand like they’ve never met before is the guy who fucked up Daniel’s knee in the semi-finals in 1984.

“Woah, _Daniel_? Daniel LaRusso?” he says, eyes widening in recognition.

“That’s me.”

Bobby shakes his hand some more, adds an elbow squeeze. “Of course it is, I recognise you from the billboards! Just didn’t expect to run into you talking to Johnny, of all people!”

The other guy’s leaning in to shake his hand too, all friendly – Jimmy, that’s his name, Daniel remembers now. Getting held down by a guy so his buddy can punch you tends to make a long-lasting impression.

Ok. So this is officially weird now.

Daniel’s 53 years old. He’s standing in a function room at the West Valley Sheraton, and if he wanted to get out of here he could just walk away. Leave the keys to his car with his high school bully-slash-coworker and get an Uber, go home to his wife. No one’s gonna try and stop him, and if they did he’d probably win the fight.

Daniel takes a deep breath, and smiles at the lions.

“Hey, the gang’s all back together,” he says, hears his tone hitting that perfect sweet spot of one-of-the-guys friendly. “Long time no see.”

Bobby Brown smiles back, shaking his head. “I hoped maybe you were photoshopped on the billboards, but nope, you just look really good. Life must be treating you well.”

Daniel shrugs, pleased. “Can’t complain,” he says.

Beside him, Johnny shifts uneasily. He’s silent through all the polite the _what are you up to these days, sounds great_ , and goes tense when Bobby points at him and says, “So _this_ guy’s still doing karate, running his Cobra Kai dojo and everything. You still get the gi out any more, Daniel, or that just advertising?”

Daniel shoots Johnny a look, hesitates for a split second.

“Yeah, I didn’t tell you,” Johnny interrupts before he can answer. “Changed that, I’m not using the Cobra Kai name any more. Kreese wanted it back. Hasn’t changed after all.”

Concerned noises from the other guys, like they don’t know how to take this and are waiting to for what Johnny says next. Honestly, Daniel would help him out here if he knew how.

“So yeah, I shacked up with LaRusso. Daniel. We’re running a dojo together.”

Ok, not how Daniel would have phrased it, but there’s not really anything to argue with. It’s nice to hear his given name in there for once.

Obviously for the former Cobra Kais, that’s a lot to unpack.

Jimmy starts “Kreese _what_?” just as Bobby repeats, “You’re running a _dojo_ together? You two are _?”_

So Johnny starts off with the Kreese-based side of the story, and Daniel finds himself confirming to Bobby that yeah, they’re running a dojo together, no, it’s only been a couple of weeks, yes they do have different styles of karate but there’s something very complimentary about the two approaches…

All fine, nothing he hasn’t already recited to parents ten times already. 

“And the two of you, you and Johnny, you’re cool now?” Bobby asks, slightly incredulous.

So fine, yeah, it was Johnny who’d started everything in senior year and Johnny who’d wanted to probably actually kill him rather than just rough him up a little, but Bobby was still the guy who nearly broke his leg in the Tournament. Kinda weird to be taking personal questions from _that_ guy.

“Yeah, we’re cool now,” Daniel tells him, and he leaves off the salesman smile, makes it a little bit of a challenge. _You got a problem with that, tough guy?_

Bobby Brown sees the challenge and declines it.

“I’m really glad to hear that, man. Really glad. Johnny’s had… issues, shall we say, with the history between you guys for years. Any time your name came up, he couldn’t let it go, and it wasn’t doing him any good.”

Their whole…thing wasn’t doing _Johnny_ any good? Daniel doesn’t think he has anything to say to that. He just makes a little, _ok, I’m listening_ noise. He’d kinda like to hear what Johnny’s saying about Kreese, but he can’t make it out over the background noise so Johnny must be speaking very quietly.

Bobby looks him right in the eyes like a priest or something. “When he told us he’d brought back Cobra Kai, was working with Kreese, we were concerned. And it started me thinking about senior year. And about my part in it.” 

“Yeah?” says Daniel. So it’s one of _those_ sales, where the customer already wants what you’re selling. You’ve just got to wait for them to talk themselves into it.

“I’m not proud of what we did to you. Kreese wasn’t a good influence on us, but we weren’t little kids to be led astray. I’d understand if this isn’t something you want to hear, but I’m sorry for everything that happened. I’m glad to see you doing so well these days.”

One of the lions apologising wasn’t something Daniel had prepared for.

“Uh, ok, man. Yeah. Well. It was a long time ago but, uh, thanks.”

“And so you and Johnny have really buried the hatchet at last? You’re, uh, you’re running a dojo? Together?”

Why does everybody have to _say_ it like that? Like they’re implying something? Daniel honestly never thought two guys who both used to do karate at school doing karate now is that unusual, but obviously that’s a minority opinion. If Johnny’s old friends are making a thing about it, it’s probably because they also used to do karate, they’re just jealous Daniel and Johnny are still in good enough shape to keep it up.

“Ha, buried the hatchet, yeah, that always reminds me - what’s that corny joke about burying it in the other guy’s back?” Daniel says, a little bit provocative. Let someone worry about Johnny being left alone with _him_ for a change.

“Hatchet’s for pussies,” Johnny says. “Take me out with a crane kick or go home, man.”

“Buy a car and maybe I will.”

Johnny just jangles the car keys in his pocket and bares his teeth.

*

Maybe people will be less weird about the dojo thing if they aren’t standing next to each other.

“I’m gonna go say hi Anna Lopez,” Daniel says. “Catch you later.”

Johnny has the gall to look surprised, like if they came together they have to stick together and this is bad prom etiquette or something. _I don’t see you with a corsage that matches my tie, buddy._ Not that he’s wearing a tie anyway.

But all Johnny says is, “Sure, catch you later,” and carries on talking to Jimmy.

So Daniel finally strikes out on his own.

*

Anna Lopez has four kids and is about to become a grandmother. She shows him a lot of photos on her phone, he shows her his photos of Sam and Anthony and Amanda on his phone, neither of them even mentions 1984 or karate, or Johnny Lawrence. It’s great.

*

Daniel’s talking to a guy he used to play soccer with, who’d played soccer with Johnny too. He joined the conversation too late for the introductions, but Daniel’s assuming the guy with him is his boyfriend.

First they’re talking cars, which is great, Daniel always loves talking cars. They know he runs his own dealership, so they’re deferring to his judgement on the new Audi, which he also likes a lot. He’s not gauche enough to try and sell anything at a high school reunion, it’s just cool to be listened to like his opinion has weight, to be not just one of the guys, but The Guy who _knows._

In the simple pleasure of weighing up horsepower and fuel efficiency, he forgets it’s better not to say anything about karate to this crowd.

“Oh yeah,” Paul’s nodding, “That’s right, you won the tournament in ’84! Nobody was expecting that, especially not those Cobra Kai guys! You know they’re here tonight? You seen them?”

“Uh, yeah, believe it or not I actually came with Johnny. We’re, uh, teaching karate together, running a dojo.”

Daniel braces himself for the weird reaction.

“You’re here _with_ Johnny Lawrence?”

…and there it is, weird reaction time.

“Uh, well, yeah -”

“Teaching karate with him?”

“Yeah, teaching karate! Hasn’t been up and running long, but yeah.”

Paul laughs out loud. “Wow, that’s – I shouldn’t be surprised at all, that actually makes so much sense now! For someone who was supposed to hate you, he did talk about you kind of a lot.”

“He did?” This part, Daniel likes. Maybe he should be recording it, mounting evidence from multiple sources that Daniel LaRusso, skinny new kid from Jersey, had gotten the great Johnny Lawrence’s panties in a twist. This is why people go to high school reunions!

“Oh, yeah, you bet! He’s obviously changed since high school, come to terms with who he is - I kept my distance from Johnny back then, he was a great soccer player but he always seemed like he was one beer away from beating someone up in a parking lot, you know?”

“Oh yeah, that would have been me. He beat me up in a parking lot,” Daniel says, with his usual mental duck-and-dive to keep the memory at arm’s length, safe as an anecdote. He’s gotten pretty good at it, over the years.

And the other guy laughs, so it worked.

“Well, so long as he’s making up for it now!” he says with a wink.

Daniel raises his beer with a wry raise of his eyebrows, not entirely sure what implication he’s saluting. What did that wink mean? Is – is Paul suggesting Johnny’s compensating for his high school bullying with - _sexual favours?_ That can’t be what he means. His brain stutters to a hard stop so he doesn’t have to think about it.

One thing he’s always been able to do is talk without conscious thought, which is lucky right now because he has to let his mouth go on autopilot. How has this guy he last saw 34 years ago come to the conclusion that running a karate dojo with Johnny Lawrence means Johnny Lawrence now gives him make-up blow-jobs or something? No. No, he’s leaping to the wrong conclusion here because he knows it’s a conclusion that Johnny would hate, that’s all.

After this, he’s going to go talk to someone he doesn’t know at all. Total strangers don’t act like there’s anything special about it. They did karate at high school, now they do karate still, that’s literally all there is to it.

*

Well, there was that one guy who remembered the ’84 Tournament even if he didn’t know Daniel or Johnny, thought it was “amazing!” that the two former opponents were working together, but he was an outlier.

*

Daniel has a beer with Freddie Fernandez. He’s grown a beard and he’s here with his wife. Daniel gets his phone out again to show them the family photos.

*

Amanda texts him:

  * How’s it going, All Valley Champ?



He replies:

  * Good, I’m showing everyone that picture of you at the beach, they’ve voted you most beautiful woman in the valley.
  * Knew it, she writes back. See how I didn’t even need to be there?



He puts his phone back in his pocket with a smile. He’ll tell her the rest when he gets home.

* * *

A lot of people remember Johnny. A lot of them tell him he looks great, which he kinda does so it’s all pretty good for his ego. Fine, he doesn’t have his own law practice or whatever, but he’s a karate sensei and that’s way more badass. That’s all these losers need to know about his life.

“Looking good, Johnny!” says Brad Wilkins. That’s as good as the conversation gets: Brad doesn’t look good, so Johnny can’t even say it back.

He used to be a football player, Johnny was a soccer player who did karate, they’d mutually judged themselves even and never interacted. Johnny’s wishing they’d stuck to that.

“So listen, Johnny, can I just say - I heard you’re here with _Daniel LaRusso?_ ” He says the name like it’s _Michael Jackson_ or – or _Santa Claus_ , just the most impossible person that Johnny could ever have come with.

Johnny doesn’t smile. “Yeah. I’m running a karate dojo with him.”

“Wow. Yeah. That’s – I gotta hand it to you, Johnny, that’s really amazing, what you did there. Most of us I think, we pretend the things we did wrong when we were kids, like, it doesn’t matter, we were just kids, you know? But for you, after everything you did to him, to go make amends to Daniel? I’m just really impressed, man.”

Brad is such a pussy. It’s not even 7pm and he’s wasted and emotional already? Stamina, man. Stamina. Whenever Johnny’s been drunk before 7pm, it’s been on purpose, because he set out to get deliberately fucked up. This lightweight got drunk by accident, because he’s nervous or something: nobody _plans_ to get off their face at a high school reunion.

“Yeah,” says Johnny. He still doesn’t smile. He could take Brad in a fight, easy.

“I’ve thought about that a lot, you know. Senior year. How maybe me and my friends should have stepped in. That poor kid. We just let you do whatever to him – you had your own shit going on at home, we all knew about that, we knew _why_ you were acting like that, but that we never intervened? That was on us.”

The code they all lived under then, he’s gotta be kidding. He never had a choice, just like Johnny didn’t. Some hot new kid moves in on his ex-girlfriend, what was he gonna do, stand there like a pussy and let it happen? He hasn’t forgotten that white-hot rage, the urge to _get him_ , to _show him_ , some primal instinct telling him to grab tight hold of Daniel LaRusso and hurt him.

It’s weird. Puberty was weird.

“But anyway! Now you run a karate dojo with him?”

If _one more person_ says it like that, Johnny might change his mind about the whole joint dojo thing.

*

Angela di Luca insists he takes her cell number. She’s divorced now.

*

He smokes a joint outside with Jack Simmons and Leroy Brown. They’re both bald now.

*

Ali’s girlfriend Judy wants to hear all about Daniel LaRusso, doesn’t he look _great_ these days? And his business is doing _really_ well, she hears. Johnny mostly tells her about Amanda LaRusso. He’s doing everyone a favour there, he thinks.

*

Jaime Dworin says, “ _Really_? With _Daniel LaRusso_?” when Johnny mentions the dojo. He’s got kids, still lives local, was kinda thinking about karate lessons for the older boy and his cousin, otherwise Johnny might have punched him.

*

Feels like they’re kind of expecting it, for him to punch somebody. Probably LaRusso.

*

He still could. It’d probably still feel really good.

*

It’s a long time since Johnny last talked to this many people who knew him. Even longer since it was people who think of him as a golden rich boy.

The currents in the room pull him back and forth, to this old friend, that old classmate, women he doesn’t know but says hi to because it’s that kind of crowd. LaRusso’s there in the group chatting next to his. When Johnny glances over, he’s laughing, a load of glossy high-end Valley wives tossing their hair at him. He catches his eye by mistake: Daniel gives him a significant look (he knows LaRusso’s significant looks by now) and goes back to his conversation.

Johnny’s nowhere near enough to hear him, until all of a sudden he is and his ear tunes in behind him - someone said _Cobra Kai_ , that’s what caught his attention, and now there’s LaRusso’s voice, where it would be too obvious if he turned around, saying like it’s no big deal, no sweat:

“Oh yeah, he used to, but there was a copyright thing with Johnny’s old sensei. Turns out he’s a very troubled old man, Johnny tried to help him out, but when he saw there was nothing he could do, he let the guy keep the name.”

Johnny knows Daniel knows that’s not what happened. He could have said Johnny was like a kicked dog crawling back to its master only to get kicked again, and Johnny couldn’t even have argued with him. Well, he could – he could have kicked his ass and proved him wrong that way – but he couldn’t actually have _argued_ argued.

“He’s an old man, seemed to matter a lot to him, you know? And most of the students came with Johnny, so he just decided to be the bigger man and let it go.”

Johnny drains his drink and heads to the bar again. It’d be weird if LaRusso knew he heard.

He buys him a drink this time, and resigns himself to standing right next to the guy when he comes back.

*

“Photo for the Facebook page!” says yet another blonde Johnny remembered with brown hair, interrupting the conversation.

Some weird photo pose instinct kicks in, and Johnny finds himself slinging an arm around LaRusso’s shoulders as he smiles at the phone. A little bit domineering and a lot familiar, old high school Johnny Lawrence tormenting the pretty new kid. A split second later he freezes, awareness of what he‘s just done sinking in and already braced for LaRusso’s elbow in his ribs.

Instead he gets an arm around the waist, LaRusso guilelessly stepping in against his side. Pose, smile, relax, let go. Nothing to see here, all done in a fraction of the time it takes to demonstrate a karate move, which they’ve already done in class. He risks a glance at LaRusso, but he’s still grinning at – Amy, says her name tag.

“Aww,” she says, smiling at the phone screen. “Look at you two!”

He couldn’t care less, honestly, she’s got her photo so she can move on now and let Johnny forget about that weird feeling of accidentally hugging Daniel LaRusso. But Daniel fucking LaRusso is being charming and polite and taking an interest. He’s like a teenager with phones.

He steps closer to Amy to see the photo and his eyebrows shoot up, so then Johnny has to look too.

“Huh, yeah,” he mutters. They look like – friends, or something. He never knows what to say when people show him photos. You’re either hoping to look fuckable or badass, and two middle aged guys at a high school reunion in a mid-price hotel is neither. Whatever LaRusso’s eyebrows were all about, he has no idea.

“Did you see Louise Foster’s photo from the cafeteria where you’re in the background, like, trying to murder each other?”

“Uh, no?” LaRusso manages, looking up at him.

He shakes his head.

“Oh, you have got to see this, it’s so funny to think back then we were all just, oh, those two, it’s a karate thing…”

And she’s scrolling and holding out the phone again, to show someone’s grainy snapshot from ’84, big hair and all, three girls Johnny doesn’t know smiling in the cafeteria. And behind them, his teenage self, oblivious, caught in the act of shoving LaRusso up against a wall.

LaRusso takes the phone, zooms with his fingers so that it’s just blurry him and blurry Johnny looming over him. They’re not trying to murder each other, Amy is full of shit – it was just a bit of routine intimidation. Kid’s stuff.

“That’s not karate,” LaRusso says mildly.

“I _know_ , right?” agrees Amy. “It seems so obvious now, when I see you together!”

LaRusso looks at Johnny in confusion. Johnny shakes his head. No idea, man. No fricking idea. He’s getting tired of this.

Amy moves on to take photos of other people and Johnny drains his beer, brandishes the car keys.

“Wanna get out of here?”

LaRusso snatches the keys out of his hand before he has time to react, so he has to pretend he meant to let him have them. Well, fine. Incredibly, LaRusso is the only person here _not_ being weird tonight.

“Thought you’d never ask,” says LaRusso, tossing back the rest of his drink.

* * *

Daniel is _not_ too drunk to be driving. He’s fine, it’s Johnny who’s drunk, it’s just as well Daniel got the keys. He respects the speed limit, he stops at the stop signs, indicates before every turn.

“You drive like such a pussy,” Johnny says.

“Shut up, I’m driving like someone who isn’t gonna get pulled over by the cops. Watch me not getting pulled over - this is how you do it.”

“I would rather get arrested than drive like you – no, man – _this_ left, make a left here - ”

Daniel maybe puts his foot down harder than he should have done to change lanes and make the left.

“ _There_ you go, _that’s_ how you drive this car…”

“Shut up about my driving and read the GPS. You said you knew the way to this bar, so prove it.”

“I don’t need a stupid fucking computer to find a dive bar. Just go where I tell you.”

“I _am_ going where you tell me, but if you don’t know where we’re going it isn’t gonna help.”

“I know where we’re going, Danielle,” Johnny scoffs.

It’s _so_ obvious he doesn’t know where they’re going.

* * *

They end up in a different bar, a couple blocks from the ocean. Whatever, there was nothing special about the first place Johnny’d said, here’s better anyway so LaRusso can shut up about it.

He can’t shut up in general, though, that would be too much to ask. He’s been going on and on about the ‘Fun Alumni Questionnaire’ neither of them filled in and how lame it was. Johnny’s gotta agree with him there.

“They oughta ask better questions. Like, how many fights a guy’s been in.”

“Yeah. Yeah!” LaRusso gestures with his drink and almost spills it. “‘Proudest professional achievement,’ that’s such bullshit –“

“Proudest _barfights_ , man –“

“Times you kicked someone’s ass when nobody thought you could do it - ”

“Karate tournaments don’t count.”

“Ha, you think I need a karate tournament to kick someone’s ass? You’re not that special, Johnny.”

“But you admit I am kinda special,” Johnny pokes him in the chest and he sways slightly before batting his hand away.

“Shut up. How many barfights you won anyway?” 

“You think I’m some kind of loser who keeps score? I dunno, if I was drunk enough to be in a barfight I was drunk enough to forget it afterwards. But I always won.”

“Sure, sure, even blackout drunk no one can beat the great Johnny Lawrence. Except _me_ ,” he points dramatically at himself with both hands like Johnny might think he’s talking about some other asshole. Fuck, imagine there being some other asshole like LaRusso out there.

“Shut up. Like you’ve ever won another fight. You don’t even get in fights when I’m not around. You need me, LaRusso -“

“I do too get in fights. Hey, you know that guy, the guy on Van Nuys - “

“What guy on Van Nuys?”

“Cole,” LaRusso spits out like the name tastes bad. “The other car guy, he’s a jerk – called Amanda darling once when I was standing _right there_.”

“You kicked his ass for that?” Johnny’s almost impressed. 

“No, couldn’t, it was some charity dinner. But he copied our TV advert and I kicked his dumb boba tea right out of his hand and he almost shit his pants.”

“All your adverts are bullshit, you know that right? Miguel says they’re cringe.”

“What does that even mean?”

“You don’t know?”

“No, tell me, Mr. I Understand Kids On The Internet,” he’s really annoying, Johnny can even hear the capital letters.

So instead of answering, he catches the bartender’s eye and orders another round.

Getting drunker with him is the only way to tolerate LaRusso’s company – they get on just fine when they’re drinking. Drinking is definitely helping him forget how weird everyone was being at the reunion, too. So what if he’s running a dojo with the guy he used to fight with? What’s the big deal?

“Why were all those losers being weird about the dojo anyway?” he complains. If there’s anyone who understands it’s all totally normal and that Johnny hasn’t been obsessed with anybody since high school and much less 98 pound weakling Daniel LaRusso, it’s 98 pound weakling Daniel LaRusso.

LaRusso shrugs, shaking his head.

“Don’t ask me, man.”

“I just wanted to _get_ you, that was all.”

“Oh, I noticed, Johnny.”

“No, like -” he makes a fist, clenches it. “ _Get_ you.”

Daniel looks sideways at him. He still has stupid long eyelashes and he still looks at Johnny from under them like he knows something Johnny doesn’t.

He swivels on his barstool to face Johnny, spreading his arms in invitation like _come and get me_ , because he’s drunk and an idiot.

“Well, here I am,” he says, with such a pure asshole grin on his face that Johnny lunges, pins him against the bar ready to show him – what exactly is he going to show him again?

“Hey, you two,” says the bartender sharply. “Not in here. Cut that out or get out.”

* * *

“What about how many women you slept with,” slurs Johnny. “ _That’s_ how you measure success.”

“What?” Daniel’s drunk now, and some of the things coming out of Johnny’s mouth aren’t making sense. That’s probably Johnny’s own fault though, too many blows to the head as a punch first, ask questions later kid, so he isn’t worried about it. He’s not _that_ drunk. Gonna get me, are you Johnny? Ha. Just you try it.

“They oughta ask, the reunion – how many babes you slept with.”

“What, ask everyone, even the women?”

“Yeah, man, it’d be hot.”

 _How_ is this guy back in Daniel’s life again? “You really never left the 80s, did you Johnny?”

“Fuck you,” Johnny says, no heat to it. “How many babes have you slept with, Danielle?”

“Oh wow, seriously, we’re gonna do this? What’s next, mine’s bigger than yours?” That was a slight miscalculation, saying it out loud, because he has to try really hard not to think about Johnny’s dick now. He definitely doesn’t look down at Johnny’s lap.

Johnny scoffs, “Of course mine’s bigger – how many, LaRusso?”

And for some reason he finds himself not answering, exactly, but not shutting down the conversation either. “It’s about quality not quantity, you know that right? You could be out there having sex with a different woman every night - ”

“I know I could. I am.”

“- and it’d still be shallow, mediocre sex with strangers working out their daddy issues on the nearest warm body.”

“Shit, were you a virgin when you got married? You were, weren’t you?”

Daniel rolls his eyes. “I am _not_ talking about my sex life with you!”

“Because you know I’ve slept with more women than you.”

“I’m sure you have, Johnny,” he says, aiming for condescending but it comes out without any bite to it. “I’ve been happily married for 20 years now, my total isn’t going up.”

“Not with that attitude.”

“Are you – are you encouraging me to cheat on my wife?”

“What? No, she’s great, she’s way out of your league, you’ll never do better than Amanda. Don’t cheat on her, that’d be an asshole move.”

“I’m not going to!”

“Good. So, she’s the only woman you’ve ever had sex with - ”

The sober, responsible thing to do at this point is to rise above it. Shake his head with a wry smile like an adult and say, _sure, whatever you say, Johnny_.

Daniel does not do that. He puts a mock sympathetic hand on Johnny’s bare forearm, makes his face go serious and looks him right in the eye.

“Listen man, I’m sorry you’re so bad you don’t get any repeat customers and have to keep on chasing the numbers -“

“Please,” scoffs Johnny.

Daniel’s vaguely aware that both of them sound like teenagers, but not aware enough to actually stop doing it. It’s kinda fun, actually. The sort of back-and-forth he never had with Johnny back in high school, when they were the right age for this sort of dumb one-upmanship. Or no, that’s not right – he had it for about 10 minutes, any time there was a teacher with them and he thought he could get away with it.

“You know who could settle this?” Johnny says, finally bothering to shake Daniel’s hand off his arm.

“No,” says Daniel. Not _no_ he doesn’t know, _no_ Johnny you dick don’t say it.

Johnny says it, of course. With a shit-eating grin. “Ali. Ali would know.”

“You wanna call our mutual ex to ask who was better in bed when we were 17, you can leave my name out of it.”

But thank god, speaking Ali’s name has turned Johnny’s drunkenness from sexually antagonistic to nostalgic. 

“She was my first, you know,” he says. Actually Daniel does know. When you’re 17, you talk about that stuff and Ali had told him. That she wasn’t a virgin, she’d done it before, with Johnny. They’d been each other’s firsts. And then it was over, and it was Daniel coming over when her parents were out of town, enduring their obvious disapproval when they were home. _He’d_ never suggested the backseat of the Ford – a classy girl like Ali, thought never crossed his mind - but she had. He was hardly going to say no to her, was he?

“Yeah, I know, she told me when we started going out,” he says, not looking at Johnny. Then, because it’s only fair: “She was my first, too.”

Johnny laughs and clinks his bottle of beer against Daniel’s. “Hey man, good for you. Good for us. She was a great girl.”

“Yeah she was. Is. Good for us, yeah.”

Johnny tips his head back to drain his beer, and Daniel watches the line of his throat and the dip of his collarbone as he swallows. Then he feels weird and has to keep talking.

“Gotta say, I never expected that 35 years later I’d be celebrating losing my virginity with you.”

He knows that came out wrong when Johnny starts laughing so hard he can’t even speak, leaning forward on his barstool so that he almost over balances and has to catch himself on Daniel’s knees. Daniel shoves at him to get him upright again but he’s heavy and Daniel’s got no leverage.

Maybe it is kinda funny.

“You wish, Danielle,” he chuckles, face alive with delight.

“ _I_ wish? _You_ were the one following me round everywhere I went, looking for excuses to get your hands on me...”

Johnny cracks up again and this time he does fall off the barstool.

It’s sort of inevitable they get thrown out of the bar.

* * *

He seems to be staggering towards the ocean, leaning on Daniel LaRusso. Or maybe Daniel’s leaning on him. That’s more likely, little punk can’t take his liquor like Johnny can. He smells nice but not like a chick, fancy cologne or some shit.

Maybe they’re leaning on each other, joint dojo team effort.

Something was funny but he’s forgotten what it was – yeah, yeah, he’s got to remember this forever – woah, trashcan, lurch to the left, don’t let go of Daniel – what was funny again?

“What was funny?” he asks.

“What?” Daniel’s too close to look at him properly. They take an involuntary swerve to the right when he tries.

That’s it, that’s it, he’s got it: “You were celebrating losing your virginity to me!”

It’s the greatest day of his life, he is never going to forget this.

“I said with you,” Daniel sighs and almost trips over his own feet. Johnny’s a hero so he holds him up. “WITH you. _Celebrating_ with you. Bet you’ve never even slept with a guy, you’re too… macho. Too macho but not man enough…”

Ha, just shows what he knows.

“YeahIhave,” he slurs out. Because he has. Johnny’s done loads of stuff LaRusso doesn’t know about.

“What?” says LaRusso.

“What?” repeats Johnny. This conversation is getting too hard to follow. “Where’re we goin anyway, man?”

LaRusso squints at him. “The beach, man. We’re goin to the beach, an’ we’re gonna play soccer, an –“

The beach, that’s it. That’s where they’re going.

He steers them straight ahead, down the street to the beach.

“ _You’re_ not man enough,” he adds. “’Twerp.”

* * *

Hours later, Daniel wakes up with sand in his mouth. Not just a dry mouth, but real sand. It’s in his mouth, his hair, on his face, down his shirt collar, because he’s on the beach? It’s cold, and Johnny Lawrence is curled up to him? He pushes Johnny’s arm off and sits up.

When he finds his phone, he has three missed calls from Amanda. There are messages too, with a link.

  * This is adorable.
  * Babe are you coming home tonight?
  * Guessing you’re drinking hard. I’m going to bed, hope you haven’t eloped with Johnny Lawrence! 😉
  * I’m eloping with that lifeguard at the beach club if you have. I love you. Xxx



The ‘this is adorable’ link takes him to the West Valley High alumni Class of ’85 Facebook page, and the photo of him and Johnny with their arms round each other from earlier in the evening. It’s captioned: It only took them 35 years, but #lovewins!

In the comments below it, someone has added the close up from the old snapshot, no girls in the foreground, just 17 year old Johnny pinning 17 year old Daniel to the wall. _Great._

Daniel groans and drops the phone.

Then realises what he’s done and scoops it out of the sand again before it stops working and he has to rely on Johnny’s phone to get an Uber home.

  * Sorry honey! Haven’t eloped but did fall asleep drunk with him on the beach



He leans over to take a photo of Johnny, asleep, and sends that to her too.

  * Calling an Uber now
  * If he won’t wake up can I leave him here?



It’s 3am so Amanda doesn’t reply. Daniel can feel his hangover starting, right there at the back of his skull. He’s got this vague misgiving that both of them did or said something dumb earlier, something they’re gonna regret when they sober up, but right now he can’t remember what it could be.

He turns to his high school karate rival, and starts trying to shake him awake.

**Author's Note:**

> in my head, the story continues: Daniel can't remember Johnny's address and he's too drunk to tell the driver so Daniel just brings him home like a stray dog and shoves him into bed in the guest room with all his clothes on. In the morning they both want to die, Johnny stays for breakfast and borrows clean clothes from Daniel and they lie on the couch watching tv and it's the weirdest day of both their lives but they're too hungover to even feel it. 
> 
> They then continue to drink heavily together for the next few weeks without ever understanding why, Amanda looking on the whole time like, "I guess you can make this really repressed and macho if you want to, but why don't we all just bang instead and take it from there. please briefly practice on your own, don't make me be part of the pent up sexual tension you've been working on for 35 years". 
> 
> ANYWAY come and hang out on [tumblr](http://deputychairman.tumblr.com/) for more thoughts about lifelong karate rivalries and how personal they can be


End file.
